I am Elaine.

This is my diary, an ever-changing auto-biography, a blog.

I write about changing the world, changing the web, and changing myself:
feminism, veganism, atheism, egoism.

Go Vegan For Thanksgiving

November 16, 2008 | 1 Comment

Turkeys are excluded from the Humane Slaughter Act. That should tell you enough to deduce that turkeys are CRUELLY killed for Thanksgiving dinners. If you have any conscience at all, go vegan for Thanksgiving.

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Miscellaneous
1 Comment to "Go Vegan For Thanksgiving"

This Morning

November 15, 2008 | 3 Comments

Here’s Ed with both dogs :)
Bella on the left and Floyd on the right.

Lucy, my sister’s dog, didn’t come for the walk this morning. But we met plenty of other dogs along the path today: a dalmatian, a pitbull, a westie, a beagle, two mini-pins, and a few other mixes and breeds I don’t know. It’s such a great walk and such a great way to tire the dogs out so we can have some peace during the day.

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Miscellaneous
3 Comments to "This Morning"

Vegan Thanksgiving Recipe Links

November 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Have a truly happy turkey day by not eating turkeys. Happy for you, happy for turkeys.

Here are some vegan Thanksgiving recipe ideas:
http://vegkitchen.com/recipes/vegetarian-thanksgiving.htm
http://vegweb.com/index.php?board=304.0
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/specialoccasionrecipe1/qt/thanksrecipes.htm
http://www.vegparadise.com/cookingwith411.html
http://www.mercyforanimals.org/thanksgiving_recipes.asp
http://www.ivu.org/recipes/holiday/

Then also, there are these:

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Miscellaneous
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My Sister’s Job

November 14, 2008 | 4 Comments

We knew the sky would fall but not how.

My sister was laid off yesterday. She’s one of thousands of people in the real estate business losing their jobs. But here’s the real scummy thing about it: they laid her off two weeks before her second anniversay, when she’d earn a two week vacation she was planning to use for Christmas. So now, not only has she lost her income and her health insurance (Cobra is too expensive), she won’t be able to do Christmas as planned. And of course, Thanksgiving will be spent worrying about where the money for her mortgage will come from rather than celebrating her good forture.

She is lucky, though, in some ways. She’s got us nearby to help out if need be. She’s got her health and her brain. She’s got friends and other relatives willing to help. And she’s got her sense of humor.

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Miscellaneous
4 Comments to "My Sister’s Job"

Another Bella Update

November 12, 2008 | 2 Comments

Bella, the dog who ran across the street in front of our car and who I managed to coax towards me enough to get a leash on her and bring her home with me, is doing well. Yesterday she had her stitches from her spay removed and now she’s allowed to take baths, play in the dog park, and go to daycare. She will go to the dog park tonight. I am excited to see her run and run and run.

I haven’t heard again from the men who claimed she was their “guard dog” that they only fed when they felt like, never trained, never saw the vet or got shots, didn’t bother with a collar or tags or microchip, couldn’t/wouldn’t keep confined in a fenced area, and never even named.

Bella, aka Belicose Wolfe (her full name), not only now has a name, she’s also got plenty of nicknames: Bells, Belly, Bel, Belsicle, and Bella-baby. Moreover, she knows her name. She also knows sit. And she’s learning “leave it”, stay, and quiet. Yes, that voice of hers has come out. She’s barked at a few strangers, so far only men. She has a very loud, relatively deep voice. If you didn’t know her, she might seem rather scary when she’s barking.

Her bark isn’t reserved for strangers, though. And even though she’s not barking at neighborhood dogs, she IS barking at our cats. I am guessing our cats are the first cats she’s ever met and she’s learned that cats aren’t very nice. Our cats don’t really like dogs much and whenever Floyd has tried to play with them, they ignore him or run away. But with Bella the cats hiss and swat. It’s a pretty negative interaction. So, for now, we aren’t ever leaving the cats alone with Bella. And we’re teaching her “quiet” to stop barking at the cats. And we’re trying to associate the cats with treats so she’s not scared of them. But I’m not really sure any of that’s going to work much. We’ll see.

She sleeps through the night, so that’s great. And she’s basically house-trained. We take her out a lot to make sure she doesn’t have an accident and we praise her when she goes to the bathroom outdoors. So far she prefers our backyard to any other location, which is good in the bedroom, bad on the hiking trail. This morning was the first time in the nearly three weeks we’ve had her that she pooped on a walk rather than the backyard. It’s silly, but that was the highlight of my day today :) ha.

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Miscellaneous
2 Comments to "Another Bella Update"

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